Microsoft has just responded to Google's move regarding Exchange ActiveSync. Sadly, instead of addressing the very real problems consumers are about to face, Microsoft starts talking about switching to Outlook.com.

Windows Phone is positioned as enterprise friendly, in enterprises, EAS is almost ubiquitous.

EAS is an "open" standard by virtue that you can implement it if you pay a royalty bearing license, it is not free, but it is not a black box either. If you're willing to play ball (Like Samba does, and yes, even Google still does) you can interoperate.

It is not unreasonable to expect Microsoft to want to make money off of a technology, that still, to this day, is better than the alternative. Like I said, I'd have absolutely no problem with this if IMAP+CalDAV and CardDAV provided anywhere near the same level of functionality, but even with IMAP Idle (Which I doubt many very OS vendors implement anyway) its rubbish. Its not true push, more like long polling.

With that said, I also think its important to highlight the fact that Outlook.com doesn't sacrifice user experience over politics. It is unbelievable that Google has given their consumers such a raw deal.

Google: Hey, we know you love your Ferrari, but we've got this cool, open, standard Unicycle for you to try!
User: Uh, what?
Google: Yeah, it's great. That's the alternative. A unicycle. It'll get you from A to B just like your Ferrari.
Google: Oh, and by the way, we've just sold your Ferrari for you. Its not open enough, you won't ever need that anyway.